Miami students receive scholarships through Air Force Research Laboratory

11/12/2012

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written by Emily Seiders, university news and communications intern

The Virtual Discovery Center developed by the AFRL Discover Lab enables collaboration and innovation without boundaries. It will be used by YATE scholarship participants in their research. (photo courtesy AFRL)

Ten Miami students have each received a $6,500 scholarship through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in collaboration with Miami University's Mobile Learning Center. Students will conduct research during the academic year at Miami and the following summer at the AFRL Discovery Lab, a resident at the Tec^Edge Innovation and Collaboration Center in Dayton.

Scholarship recipients will be participating in the Year-at-the-Edge (YATE) program, a collaboration between the Mobile Learning Center and the AFRL Discovery Lab. The program is in its second year and began in spring of 2012.

During the spring 2013 semester and over the summer, students will continue previous YATE participants’ research and development of four new systems of mobile technology. These include:

• Eagle Eye: a virtual command center for supporting decision making in disaster and other similar situations. The system is meant to provide data to decision-makers using social media, information from first responders and other on-site sources.

• Mobile AR System (MARS): a mobile device system for data collection and augmented reality. The system integrates data collection and augmented reality to provide first responders and concerned citizens with a way to provide data collection services to Eagle Eye.

• First Response and Operations Data Observer (FRODO): a robotic system for first response observations. The robotic system will be used to gather data in first response situations in order to feed information to Eagle Eye.

• Virtual Miami: a “second life”-based representation of Miami. One of the hallmarks of the YATE program is the use of a virtual environment to coordinate activities between geographically separated researchers. This project will be used to create a virtual Miami campus while also provide a platform for integrating Eagle Eye functionality into a virtual environment.

The goals of the YATE program are to increase the number of students doing research, especially in mobile computing, to recruit the next generation of scientists and engineers into graduate schools and to introduce students to potential careers at the Air Force Research Laboratory, other government labs or in supporting industries.

Miami’s Mobile Learning Center was initiated in 2010 to promote the use of mobile technology for education. The center is a joint venture of Miami’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies and information technology services.